A College of the Holy Cross donor is suing the institution in an effort to recoup $21 million, alleging that the university delayed construction on a performing arts center and was not transparent in how it used his funds, The Boston Globe reported.
Cornelius B. Prior Jr., a 1956 Holy Cross graduate, argued in a lawsuit filed last fall that he donated $18 million in 2012 on the condition that his alma mater develop a performing arts center on campus “without delay.” He then donated another 3 million for a separate project “that he did not wish to fund, without which Holy Cross refused to honor its agreement to move forward” on the performing arts center, according to the lawsuit.
(Prior was a Holy Cross trustee at the time of his donation, a position he held through June 2021.)
The lawsuit also says that the university demanded another $7 million from Prior to complete the facility, which he refused to give. Prior alleged that Holy Cross “spitefully” canceled a concert in his honor in an effort to “humiliate” him when the Prior Performing Arts Center opened in 2022, which the lawsuit states caused the donor “significant embarrassment and stress.”
While the case has been slowly moving through the legal system, Holy Cross President Vincent D. Rougeau rebuffed the allegations as “untrue” in a letter to the campus community published on Monday.
Rougeau argued that he believes “this matter is governed by a written pledge agreement” signed in 2014 that “requires that we first work to resolve this matter privately through mediation or arbitration,” which is why the university had held off on responding publicly to the lawsuit.
He also disputed that the project was delayed, noting that trustees—including Prior—had agreed that two-thirds of the funds for the performing arts center “must be raised before the College could put shovels in the ground,” and Prior had pledged only part of the $109 million project cost.
Rougeau accused Prior of unfairly challenging “the integrity of the College” and trustees.
(This story has been updated to include the institution’s proper name, College of the Holy Cross.)
